


The Mission

by needleyecandy



Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Disasters, M/M, Mars mission, Smut, Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 06:30:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4468835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needleyecandy/pseuds/needleyecandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were only six spots for the journey to establish a base on Mars as the first step to building a colony. The competition was fierce, but both Thor and Loki made the cut.</p><p>Things... don't go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mission

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for Fucking February but it didn't really fit, so it's been lingering in my hard drive, but karuvapatta posted a [similar prompt](http://karuvapatta.tumblr.com/post/125455252964/thorki-astronauts-au#_=_) (though there's no incest here, sorry) so I figured I'd post. 
> 
> I know people are used to me writing happy endings... please don't rely on that. 'Ambiguous ending' is the best it gets.
> 
> ETA- the song that inspired this (obviously) was [Space Oddity.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP6xBFyA_aw)

Thor was the only one of the final candidates who didn't dislike Loki. That was fine with Loki; he disliked everyone, including Thor. He kept it buried under a veneer of courtesy, and that was enough for the program directors. As long as everyone got along, no matter how insincerely, they were going to take the best. 

Loki was one of the best. It made the others treat him politely. Living with him would be worth it if they were picked. 

Mars. Mars was worth spending the rest of their lives with Loki. Mars was worth anything. 

Loki was picked as the pilot, of course. His reflexes and quick thinking when he was in the simulator were unequalled. 

Sif's selection as commander was equally obvious. She had commanded two missions before, one of which would have been a disaster were it not for her calm and quick thinking. Everyone - even Loki - wanted her in charge. 

Thor was more of a surprise; he certainly was skilled, but his size had weighed against him during the decision making. The ship would be by far the largest thing NASA ever built, but to live in it for years on end, every single inch would count. They put him through an extra round of tests, smaller spaces and longer times than the others had faced. When he remained resolute, he was chosen to be the ship's engineer. He seemed to have a sixth sense for electricity. It was a skill that could save lives. 

Freya was chosen to be the ship's botanist. The competition was tense for the role; she had the same level of education as the alternatives, but less experience in conducting research. Her greater knowledge of hydroponic gardening tipped the decision in her favor. Research skills would be useless if everyone starved. 

Construction of their living dome would be supervised by Hogun, though the entire crew would be put to work. He was quiet and thoughtful, just the traits they wanted in someone who would spend the entire trip in wait. 

Brunhilde was the soil geologist selected for the journey. Everyone else's work was dedicated, really, to getting her to Mars to do her research. 

Everyone - men and women both, to be safe - agreed to be sterilized. Pregnancy and birth were far too dangerous to risk, even if there had been room on the ship for a doctor. They said their goodbyes three months before they left Earth, going into quarantine to ensure they did not carry any illnesses with them. It was also intended to give them experience in living in close quarters. 

No one was quite prepared for how they would feel when their ship lifted off. They had anticipated some melancholy, of course, at bidding an eternal farewell to all they had known. They had anticipated exhilaration, as well, at being an entirely new sort of pioneer. As it turned out, they had no chance for anything but focus. Loki and Sif worked as though they shared a single mind, her eyes on ten screens at once and his hands responding to her every word. The others were pressed into their seats, silently sending all their own will and attention into the two who now controlled their lives. 

The emotions hit when they settled safely into orbit. They would stay here for two days, monitoring the ship's functions, before Loki would fire the thrusters that would slingshot them into the looping path to Mars. Laughter filled the control capsule as they unbuckled themselves and floated free. Tears would have filled it, but for the awareness of what salt and water could do to delicate electronics. Those would be shed privately, later. 

The time came quickly, and it was with an air of unreality that they listened to the rockets starting again. 

"Only twenty-one people have gone past this point," Sif said quietly. "Not since 1972." She nodded to Loki, who nodded back. 

Twenty-seven people. 2022. 

Once they had broken free, there was little to be done, day-to-day. Freya monitored the plants. They read and watched movies and took turns preparing their meals, and watched as the earth grew smaller. 

The control watch cycled between Sif, Thor, and Loki. Most of the crew stayed on the same time as Mission Control in Houston to keep a vague sense of normalcy to their days. All except Loki; he took the night watch, preferring to have some time to himself. 

Months passed. Lovers were taken and traded. Fights were picked over nothing, simply for something to do. 

It was not like quarantine. 

They were a year and five months into the journey when it happened. Loki was on watch while the rest were in bed, in the middle of what passed for their night. He had the lights dimmed and was relaxed in his chair, looking out at the stars as though they could never grow old. He glanced back when he heard the door from the science capsule open. It was at the center of the long thin ship, with the living and sleeping quarters at the far end. Thor nodded to him as he sank into Sif's empty seat. 

"Can't sleep?" Loki asked absently. 

Thor shook his head _no._ "Too much thinking," he said. 

Loki understood that all too well. They sat together in silence, watching. 

It takes time for data to travel through space. It took three seconds after the first shriek of the alarm before Mission Control's voice stuttered into Loki's earpiece. He was already leaning forward, tapping rapidly at his console and his eyes everywhere. 

" _Get them out_ ," he told Thor. 

Thor shoved at the desk and _flew_. 

The door to the living quarters refused to open. An automatic safety; when the shell was breached in one section, the doors sealed automatically to prevent the vacuum of space moving beyond that capsule. Thor was grateful there was no window in the door. Better not to see, if he could not help. 

Loki was still working rapidly, hitting buttons and barking into his microphone as the alarm continued to sound. Thor floated silently, waiting for orders. 

Loki gave none. 

The alarm silenced. 

Loki slumped forward, still careful not to touch the controls. "It's just us," he said. His voice was raw. "They're going to do some calculations, see if we have enough fuel to turn back. Not having to provide life support to the rear capsule should save some energy." 

Thor sat back down. "And if not?" 

"We keep going." 

It took a few hours for all the reports and calculations to be completed. Four hours, nineteen minutes and thirty-six seconds to learn that they could not return to earth, they did have enough food, and they still had everything needed to build a base on Mars. 

All they could do was go forwards. 

Sensors had registered an impact; it was concluded that they had been hit by a rock larger than had been expected in that particular region of the solar system. They both were grateful when it was decided not to risk sending either of them on a space walk to examine the breach. Neither one wanted to see what was left inside. 

Dealing with it might have been easier had they not lost everything of their own but the clothes on their backs. Thor liked to disappear into movies when he was troubled; Loki liked losing himself in books. Now they had neither. 

It was easier for Loki. At least he hadn't liked those who were lost, though he had looked on his books as friends. Thor had lost friends, lovers, and escape, all at once. 

Now he had only Loki, and Loki had only Thor. 

"Tell me a story," Thor said one night. Now that they were sleeping in the command capsule there was no need to keep watches, and it was easier to sleep at the same time with the lights set low. When Houston protested they turned off the speaker. 

Loki looked at Thor contemplatively before giving the slightest tilt of his head and taking a moment to think. 

"Once upon a time, long, long ago, a man named Lucius visited his friend, Milo," he began. 

It took a week for Loki to tell the story of the Golden Ass. 

"Now tell me a story," Loki said. 

Thor thought. "A man lay on his deathbed," he began. "Just before he died, he said a single word." It took four days for him to tell the story of Citizen Kane, making it last as long as he could. 

Loki next told Thor about Cold Comfort Farm. 

"You like funny stories," Thor said. 

Loki nodded. "I do," he said. 

Thor told Loki the story of Some Like It Hot. 

Loki's laugh was low and beautiful. 

Loki didn't face Thor when he told his stories; he sat leaning back in his chair, staring out into space as he spoke. Thor watched the starlight on his lips as they moved. 

It took months of intensive data transfers to deal with all the changes that had to be made; the impact had knocked them ever so slightly off course, so Loki had weeks of minute corrections, and Thor had to be talked through commander training. Loki had learned to fill in for Sif, were it needed, and Thor had received pilot training. It was simply too dangerous to leave such skills unduplicated. In the end, though, it was decided that it was better to have one of them, at least, in his original position. Finally Mission Control began to stream books to them. Movies were simply too data-intensive to broadcast such a distance. 

They took turns reading to each other. Thor's voice was rich and echoed into somewhere Loki didn’t know. 

It took them another year to fully learn what it is to have only one other person in the world. That person becomes everything. Bitterest enemy. Dearest love. Sharpest desire and greatest fear. Loki wanted Thor to die, and knew he would die without him. But some things remained unbroached. They argued to hear the sounds. They fought to feel the pain. They turned up the temperature in the cabin as their clothes fell apart. 

Thor asked Houston to send them plays. That was in the fourth year. 

By the fifth, they no longer had to read the plays; they each knew all the parts by heart and would act them out, as best they could with only two people. 

They were nearly six years into their mission when Romeo kissed Juliet. 

Loki didn't want Thor to die, after that. 

They didn't discuss it, nor, for months, did they move beyond it. Not anywhere but in their eyes and in their thoughts. Yet they kept finding themselves returning to the same few plays, Romeo kissing Juliet, Faustus kissing Helen, Jack kissing Gwendolyn. 

Thor watched Loki moving easily through the ship. The grabbable roundness of his backside as he somersaulted was a luscious contrast with the long, trim lines of his figure when he straightened. Thor's hands began to ache with want. He brought himself to joyless orgasms in the shower in hope of avoiding poorly timed erections. The rotting scraps of cloth they wore low around their hips did nothing to hide them. 

Thor began trying to speak of it. Loki would avoid the conversations, slipping away to wherever Thor was not, but it wasn't long before he would be back, asking Thor _Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?_ Plays gave way to acts, acts to scenes, scenes to lines. 

Lines at last gave way to names. Loki would call Thor _Helen_ or _Jack_ or _Cecily_ and wrap his arms around Thor's neck. His kisses were soft and hot and eager and one day it was not enough. 

"My Romeo," Loki murmured, catching Thor's arm as he passed. 

Thor turned to him. He grabbed a stabilization rail with one hand and Loki with the other, pressing Loki's body against the wall with his own. 

" _Thor,"_ he growled. " _Call me my name._ " 

Loki wavered. A thousand emotions, more than he knew existed, flooded through him. It was easy while they were being other people, people whose stories had been written. All their endings were known. Even a bad ending was an ending. That was something he could trust. But his own story - and Thor's - remained unwritten. Loki couldn't trust something he did not yet know. And if Thor were to change his mind, were to stop wanting him... it was bad enough to be left for another person. To be left for _no one_ would be unbearable. 

As Loki thought, he saw a veil of sadness fell across Thor's face. It shook something, deep inside him. It wrote another line in their book, the sort of line that foretells all that is to come, as long as you know how to read it. Loki's guesses were only ever fifty-fifty. 

"Thor," he said, and this time it was not just his arms that he wrapped around the strong body before him. Once he let down his guard, the longing hit them both like a force of nature, relentless and irresistible. 

Thor let go of the rail, tightening his arms around Loki's back. His arms and Loki's legs held them together as they floated slowly through the capsule, while Loki kissed and pulled and licked and touched and murmured. " _Thor,_ " he said, " _Thor, Thor._ " A thousand kisses came like rain, and Thor's name between each heated drop. 

When Loki felt Thor's hands sliding lower, reaching for his last scrap of clothing, he shifted slightly back, making it easier to pull it away. A simple shove was all it took to send Thor's floating after it and then they were pressed together, skin to skin, lips to lips. 

Thor had imagined this moment countless times before, with his eyes squeezed shut and head against the shower wall as he worked himself to completion. It was nothing like he imagined. He had thought that they might take their time, drawing out their explorations. But from the moment that _Loki_ kissed _Thor_ he knew there would be no such delays. 

Loki had never let himself imagine. Imagining meant hope, and that meant heartbreak. Hope was trust, and that had never, in his experience, been anything but a mistake. And now he was letting himself begin to hope, begin to trust. It was terrifying, too frightening by far to face it, and so he buried his fears beneath desire. 

There were the practicalities to be figured out, of course. All either one knew of men's lusts were their own, so they were forced to experiment. Loki relaxed his hold on Thor to kiss his careful path down. Thor's warm hands wrapped under his triceps, holding them together as he ran his tongue through the shadowed valleys between the muscles that rippled across Thor's stomach, as he sank his teeth lightly into their crests. As he drew close to Thor's cock, he looked up. 

"I've never done this before," he said. If Thor had not known him so perfectly, he would never have heard the fear and caution that lurked beneath the quietness. 

"Neither have I. We'll learn," Thor answered. He gave Loki's arms a gentle, affectionate squeeze and smiled down at him. 

Loki did not start slowly. He meant to; he meant to start with light flicks of his tongue paired with wet-lipped kisses. He meant to let himself adjust, and learn a bit of what Thor liked. Faced with Thor's cock, though, his thoughts fled and he found himself taking it as far as he could go. It was better. Better not to think. 

Thor muffled a cry when Loki took him in his mouth, sliding awkwardly down. As far as he knew, the microphone was still on, and he was loathe to share this with everyone in Houston. He clapped a hand over his mouth and gasped into it. 

Loki curled his hands around Thor's hips as he pulled him closer, trying to go deeper. He felt a surge of panic at the difficulty in breathing and struggled to calm his racing heart. 

"There's no hurry," Thor said quietly, curling his free hand affectionately around the back of Loki's neck. "We've got time." 

In truth, it took everything he had not to clamp his hands down on Loki's head and bury himself. Loki's lips looked so beautiful stretched around his cock; he was desperate to see them surrounded by golden curls. 

_Time_ , in the end, was what Thor did not take. Not as much as he would have liked, anyway, but it had been so long, years now of nothing but his own touch, years now of watching and wanting. 

Their bodies had much less scent than they had on earth, but what little there was left they already knew intimately. It was impossible to avoid, living so closely. So the soft hints of musk and mellow wood that met Loki's nose were a source of satisfaction rather than discovery. The salt that began to smear across his tongue, though, that was new. He fought to control his breathing, trying hard not to gag. 

It was the worst blow job Thor had ever had. There were random scrapes of teeth and little spluttering sounds mixed in with overly sharp, erratic sucking and uneven glides up and down his shaft and nothing, _nothing_ had ever felt so good. 

"I'm close," Thor warned quietly. Loki would have to swallow - a stray drop of come could easily destroy their controls - but it seemed polite to give warning, all the same. 

"Mmf," Loki agreed, tightening his fingers. He hadn't really needed the warning; it was clear from the tension he felt building beneath his fingers, from the way Thor's cock was beginning to jerk between his lips, from the soft noises that filled the room like flowers. 

They quit following the schedule set for them by Mission Control, and threatened to turn off communications if they were met with complaints. They would eat when they were hungry, make love when the mood took them, dim the lights when they felt like sleep. 

Sometimes they would manage to stay holding each other all night. More often, though, they would drift apart in their sleep. Loki would wake Thor by climbing into his lap and pulling himself down onto his dream-roused erection. Thor would wake to the face he had been dreaming of. Other times Thor would wake Loki with dizzying swirls of his tongue, everywhere he was most sensitive. Loki would wake to find Thor's mouth sucking him to hardness. 

Mission Control grudgingly went along with things until one day a crackly voice woke them with something they had to decide. The drag of the damaged capsule increased the risk factor of landing from the five percent chance to which they had agreed; current estimates were a fifteen to twenty percent chance of failure. Without a geologist to conduct the planned experiments, the motivation to land was significantly reduced. There was enough power to support the ship past their life spans. So they had to decide: take the risk of landing, or just keep going, out into the great unknown. 

They stared at each other as the staticky speech rattled on. 

When it was over, Thor reached forwards. "We need to discuss this privately," he told them, before flipping off the microphone. 

"What do you want to do?" Loki asked quietly. He reached over to take Thor's hand, and turned his eyes back to the stars. He could have drawn them, now, but still he looked. 

"I don't want to die," Thor said slowly. "And I don't like the odds they're giving us for a successful landing. But... I miss the things I didn't know I'd miss. I miss feeling the sun on my face. I miss _gravity_. When we left, I was so excited to be out here, weightless. And I do like it, but now... I want to walk. I want to feel your weight when you ride me. I want to sweep you off your feet." 

Thor watched Loki as he spoke, forcing his fears deep so Loki wouldn't hear them in his voice. What if Loki didn't want to land? How would it be decided, with only the two of them? Would Houston make the decision and leave one of them furious or resentful? 

Loki stared out as he listened to Thor saying exactly his own wishes. It was far too perfect, far too easy. 

"Have I been talking in my sleep?" he asked bitterly. 

"What?" Thor frowned in confusion. 

"How can I trust you when you only ever say what I want to hear?" 

Thor shifted, reaching for him. "Loki, I-" 

" _Don't patronize me,_ " Loki spat, shoving himself away. He stared at Thor. "I can't take it, not from you," he explained, finally. 

"I swear to you, it is the truth. You think I would lie about wanting to take this risk?" 

"I don't _know._ I don't know what you would do. I know what Romeo, or Helen, or Algernon would do. But not you." 

Thor's mouth was dry as he spoke. "You trust me less than them? Than people who aren't even real?" 

"They're the only ones I can trust." 

"No. You're wrong. You can trust me. If you won't give me your faith in all things, trust that I want what I have said." 

Loki held his gaze. "Show me how much you want it," he said at last. 

Thor pushed up away from his seat and tugged Loki after him, so that they floated languidly through the middle of the capsule. 

"Imagine that standing on solid ground," he murmured into Loki's ear. "I'd put my arms around you and make sure I had a good solid grip before I even tried to lift you. There'd be one here, to hold you," he said, sliding a hand down to cup his long fingers beneath Loki's ass, "and one here, to balance you," he added, pressing his free hand to Loki's lower back."And then I'd pick you up, and at last I'd truly know what it is to hold you. Can you not believe I want that?" 

Loki swallowed hard and nodded. "We'll do it," he said quietly. "We'll try." 

He couldn't help the tentative smile that crossed his face at Thor's reaction. He held his breath as Thor's lips claimed his own, seeking, before kissing his way lower. Loki watched as his knuckles went white from clutching at the stabilization bar. Thor had gotten good at this in the past months. His breath hitched as Thor's tongue - Loki had always prided himself on his clever tongue, but in this, at least, Thor's more than rivalled it - licked a long, narrow stripe up the length of his shaft before trailing up and through the slit, making an appreciative murmur at the slippery salt that waited there for him. Thor held tight to Loki's thighs as he continued, suckling at the head until Loki curled over with a sob, diving down to bury his lips in dark curls. Loki came with Thor's name on his lips. 

They told Mission Control that they wanted to land. It meant another series of course corrections, the like of which Loki had not needed to do since the strike, but he had forgotten nothing. His sure hands guided the ship in its careful turns, until they no longer had stars in front of them, but Mars. 

Their wants filled every spare second. They took turns filling each others' bodies, hands tight on stabilization bars, lips parted in neverending cries. 

The sight of Mars before them gave way to the landscape of the Xanthe Terra region, and then to the Mojave Crater, where they were to land. Its high walls offered some protection from the brutal storms that at times covered the planet. 

Their last hours of weightlessness were spent in sex. Tongues and hands and cocks were alive with urgency, openings were grasping and grateful. Thor tried to speak and Loki forbade it, forbade any communication but gasps and moans and pleading. 

And then they took their seats, and Thor flipped on the many monitors that had spent years in darkness. Loki fired their final rockets as Thor spat out orders and readings. The pressure forcing them against their seats was like tasting a food not eaten since childhood. The ship shook with strain, and Loki fought constantly against the drag caused by the damage to the hull. Time stopped as they worked, every second an eternity and eternity passing in a second. Before they knew it, the landing thrusters were shutting down as the ship settled to land. 

They looked at each other in relief. Just as they began to smile, they heard a noise. 


End file.
